Dustin Freemans of the Internet

My name is relatively rare, but not so rare that I’m in the only one with it. I first became aware that there were other people with my name out in the world when I was 12. I was getting my first bank account so I could be paid for a paper route, and my Dad was treating it like a rite of passage. The teller idly mentioned that there was another Dustin Freeman who lived in Winnipeg. I knew immediately that he was my sworn enemy for stealing my individuality.

I “work” in a field where online presence is important. People need to be able to find you and cite you easily. Papers often have…unusual and expressive titles so that they are easy to search. Take my first paper for example: ShadowGuides. We could have had the title Shadow Guides, but that produces less unique results. It brings up Shadow of the Colossus, though which is nice, because that is a beautiful game.

I haven’t tried to engage with any of these Dustin Freemans. I have tried to join fan clubs made on Facebook for other Dustin Freemans to cash in on the love, but it hasn’t worked:

This post was precipitated by some fool in California who has started giving out my email address as his own. From the emails I’ve received, I can tell that:
– he rents cars frequently
– he buys girl’s dresses, or approves them or something (I got an email with the subject line “dresses” and a bunch of pictures of models wearing dresses. I replied. It definitely isn’t spam.)
– he works for some company that does shipping “Choice Logistics RMA’s” (I’m currently stuck in a Reply-All trap with these guys)

One Response to Dustin Freemans of the Internet

Hah, I think about this stuff too. My name is way more common than yours. When I set up my website, I did some googling too. There are a ridiculous amount of ‘Melissa Clark’s out there. That’s why I made my site as ‘Melissa Jean Clark’. Using my middle name makes a HUGE difference! Google ‘Melissa Jean Clark’ and I’m the top hit. ‘Melissa Clark’ and I’m not even on the first page.